“Like everyone else in the settlement of Mistaken, Greer Mackenzie is trapped. Founded by an ambitious lumber merchant, the village is blessed with rich natural resources that have made its people prosperous—but at a cost. The same woods that have lined the townsfolks’ pockets harbor dangerous beasts: wolves, bears, and the Bright-Eyeds—monsters beyond description who have rained utter destruction down on nearby settlements. But Mistaken’s founders made a deal with the mysterious Benevolence: the Warding Stones that surround the town will keep the Bright-Eyeds out—and the town’s citizens in. Anyone who spends a night within Mistaken’s borders belongs to it forever. Greer, a mapmaker and eccentric dreamer, has always ached to explore the world outside, even though she knows she and her longtime love, Ellis Beaufort, will never see it. Until, on the day she and Ellis are meant to finally begin their lives together, Greer watches in horror as her beloved disappears beyond the Warding Stones, pursued by a monstrous creature. Determined to rescue Ellis, she figures out a way to defy Mistaken’s curse and begins a trek through the cold and pitiless wilderness. But there, Greer is hunted, not only by the ruthless Bright-Eyeds but by the secret truths behind Mistaken’s founding and her own origins.” – Goodreads

Well, I’m writing this review about two weeks late, but I promise I have an excuse! Multiple excuses, actually. All of them involving school, track, friend group hangouts, and sleep prioritization. Luckily for you, I have about 45 minutes before my next class – let’s see if I can get a review in.

Erin A. Craig is high on my list of authors. I own Small Favors and loved A House of Salt and Sorrow, and The Thirteenth Child was such a beautiful and unique summer adventure for me. When I saw that Craig was releasing her first “adult” novel, I was excited to see how it would be different and what fresh mythologies she had for her readers.

Unfortunately, A Land So Wide was a severe disappointment. I knew I wasn’t as into it as her other books when it took me days to get through the first act and the main characters hadn’t even made it to the “inciting incident” yet. The only difference between A Land So Wide and Craig’s YA work was a few unnecessary and blunt spice scenes thrown in for marketing purposes and the main character’s age (she was a YA heroine in a 27-year-old body). I made it through, but I almost regret the money I spent on it. I probably could’ve bought a different one of her books and felt much happier.

Listen, just because I’m majoring in professional writing does not mean I’m a writing snob or an expert on plot structure. But I do know that when you break genre conventions, you need to do it right and in an intentional way. A Land So Wide spend about 40% of the book on the expositionary sequence, and the last 60% following Greer (the FMC) as she wanders around and stumbles into plot sequences. I was expecting either loads of time, action, horror, and realizations within the village (as in Small Favors) or a balanced move from town life to Greer’s new life on the run to find her lover (as in The Thirteenth Child). Instead, the major plot events felt discordantly paced and all over the place. In general, everything was strangely paced. It made the book summary feel misleading. I spent so much time confused about the “bad guys” and the “mysterious” stuff going on, but the reveals were paced so badly that none of them felt satisfying.

The style remained consistent throughout the book – the one redeeming factor. I usually love Craig’s style: the beautiful imagery and strong internal character experiences, the cohesive vibe and fantastical word choices… she managed to maintain that in A Land So Wide, but it was so overshadowed by the terrible plot decisions and annoying characters.

As I said before, Greer is not an “adult” FMC. She behaves like a regular old YA protagonist – there’s something special about her, but she must fulfill her destiny on her own terms. I did appreciate the classic Craig FMC vibe she had about her – a mix of “strong female character” and “satisfied with choosing to be a SAHM if I want” – she doesn’t have to desperate airs of feminism most FMCs have these days. However, she was so similar to other Craig characters that I was missing what made Greer special. Even her hobbies, interests, and talents felt tacked on to give her something unique and potentially helpful in the future.

Some of the male characters were actually really interesting and complex in the first act. Ellis, Lachlan, Greer’s father… their scenes showed fascinating character elements and I was excited to get to know them more. Unfortunately, they all go away when Greer runs off into the woods after Ellis. I would say the book really starts to go downhill at that point in the narrative. We don’t see Ellis again until the very end, Greer’s dad loses his complexity, etc. Instead, we get to meet Finn.

I swear, this bro came out of NOWHERE. The book took so long to get to him that I did not expect him to have any kind of plot significance as a romantic partner. Then Greer starts acting all weird and imagining spicy stuff with him? The one thing I really liked about her was how devoted she was to Ellis. So who is this Finn guy?! I believe his only purpose was so give Greer something spicy to think about while Ellis is gone so Craig could keep the romantasy girlies hooked.

This is my problem with the current industry – romantasy, love triangles, and spicy stuff is popular, forcing a very strong author with an established presence and plenty of previous success to shoehorn in spice for marketing purposes. This is made obvious by the way the spice shows up – a quick scene in the beginning to get the reader hooked, and a dream sequence later to satisfy the reader until the end. I think it’s so obvious in the way Craig does this that she’s desperately trying to keep the actual spice out of her story – both in this book and The Thirteenth Child, the spice happens in a dream but never in the actual narrative. Poor Craig.

She also introduced a ton of characters early on while in the village and then dropped them when Greer entered the woods. If I’m getting more attached to the side characters from the beginning than the main characters, you have a problem. If you take those side characters away, you have an even bigger problem. The whole thing was just super frustrating and confusing.

Honestly, there’s so much I could rant about but there’s not really a point and I don’t want to spoil things.

I never thought I’d see the day that I’d give an Erin A. Craig novel 2 stars, but here it is. Craig’s “adult” debut remained as YA-feeling as ever, with some completely unnecessary and nonsensical spice scenes added in for marketing. A Land So Wide’s plot tries hard to break genre conventions and be unique, but only succeeds in confusing the reader and presenting an unbalanced storyline. Some of the side characters may have been entertaining, but they were not handled well. Overall, this fantasy novel was disappointing and too confusing to keep me immersed in Craig’s beautiful writing style.